The midwifes Tale
by Simone of the Zordiak
Summary: Prior to the 18th century, caring for pregnant women in Europe was confined exclusively to women, and rigorously excluded men. Skilled midwives managed all aspects of the labour and delivery. Emma Swan was delivered by Doc, Snow Whites male drawf friend. Here is the reason why. Here we have the Midwifes Tale.


She was packing when the carriage arrived. The wagon with the heavy trunks and few pieces of furniture had already left and now she was carefully placing the few remaining mementoes in her travel-chest. It was all she had left of them, she didn't wish for them to be damaged.

The newly instated queen and her husband entered the house and realized that there was something strange going on. Gone were the bushels of drying herbs that were normally strung up right under the celling, gone the large chest the midwife was using as a wardrobe. There was no linen strung up and the spinning wheel was missing. And the midwife, she was gently wrapping an earthen plate decorated with different hand-prints into a lambskin. She was crying.

When she saw that she was no longer alone she dried her eyes with a piece of linen and started to talk:

"Once upon a time there was an old midwife who was married to a potter and together they had four children. The eldest son who had become a potter like his father, the second son who had been drafted into the castle guard and was counting down the days until he could leave, the daughter which had been trained to be a midwife just like her mother and the youngest son, who took care of the chickens and worked as a runner for his mother.

The husband, he died when the river flooded, for the bridge was damaged and he couldn't swim. The mother grieved but carried on, she had four good children helping her.

Then the eldest son was slaughtered. He had delivered goods to a town that Queen Regina suspected of hiding the runaway princess. Her guards killed everyone and left them there to rot in a big pile of human bodies.

The mother cried endlessly while she dug through the corpses to find the one belonging to her son. And she brought her child home to be buried next to his father.

And still, the midwife went on, for she had three children still, until the day she send the youngest son out to the western field to inform the farmer that his wife had gone into labour.

The son never returned, but the farmer saw him being taken into a black carriage. The second son, the one in the guard started to ask around and finally he learned that the Queen was taking children to a place in the forest where there stood a candy house. And she sent the children into that house to bring her an apple.

None of them returned. It is said that a child eater lives in that house and the candy is their way to ensnare children.

And the mother, bowed down with grief, became ill.

She had lost her second child to the Queen and she couldn't even bury it. And then you came and lead the people against the Queen. When you stormed the castle the second son was standing guard on one of the towers. One of your people cut his throat. Thus my last brother died.

So then there was only me, me and my mother. And she only lived for justice, for the moment when she could see the Queen die.

But the Queen didn't die, did she? A murderess many times over, yet you allowed her to live. A known witch and heart-stealer, did you even try to find the many people she had taken prisoner?

No, no you didn't. You just send her to the castle she preferred anyway.

And my mother? She came home at the day when justice was denied and with a broken heart she lied down and closed her eyes, never to open then again.

Now there is only me and I watched. I saw how you did not handle the Queens return and threat, how you sided with a deal-breaker to imprison the Dark One, the only magical force that does come to our help if we can pay his price. Now our word counts for nothing, for if the royals of the land don't respect the deals done with the Dark One, what can we say, what can we do to prove our sincerity? And to save one baby from the Dark One, you have condemned countless others for he is the one to take the unwanted ones and finds them homes. Now the mothers leave them in front of the temples, throw them into ditches or outright murder them. I have seen it begin and I will not remain here to see it continue.

When I saw the first signs that you were carrying a new life in your belly I sent out letters and now I have found another place as a midwife in another kingdom far away from here."

Gently she closed her chest and carried it past the royals that stood there uncomfortably and ashamed.

"Adieu, Queen Snow. I hope I never see you again."

And she left.


End file.
